This chapter was a hassle. Originally it was about two thousand words but it made little to no sense, so I kept on adding bits until it was almost 5k. It's the longest chapter in this fic, I guess. Enjoy!

For months, they traveled within the system of Mandalore. There was never any place, no matter how trusted, that they could stay for long. There was a price on Satine's head, and it was high enough that it attracted bounty hunters outside of the system as well as within.

After three months they found they couldn't stay in any particular place for more than three days, if they were lucky, and a single night if they were not. And more often than not, Obi-Wan insisted they stay only the one night, citing the "force" warned them away.

This was more frustrating, it was ridiculous. How on ever member of the Ka'ra was she supposed to gain them any allies if she was only allowed one night?

Besides, being on the run was miserable. When they stayed with the neutral families they had a bed to sleep in and a meal to eat. When they were turned away they had to steal from vendors for their meals and slept in abandoned buildings or whatever small corner they could find.

Satine had believed her training to be thorough, but her bajur had never prepared her for the hunger. The cold, yes. The rain, yes. The discomfort, of course. But there had always been a full stomach to bolster her. Here the hunger ate away at them both like boars scratched at the walls of their stomach in search of more food.

Obi-Wan insisted on meditating everyday. Satine hadn't minded this so much while they were in the forest, but it was incredibly boring when they were hiding in an shed she dared not leave. When they were hungry, he meditated twice as much, claiming he "needed the connection to the force".

Mediation aside, Obi-Wan was a better partner than she'd thought. He learned not fast, but thoroughly when they had trained together. His reflexes truly were a luxury in a fight, and he often was ready to give her aide seconds before she needed it. She came to depend upon his defense and steel will, and he followed her aggressive pushes and attacks.

There were occasional messages from her father. Mostly scolding her for throwing away her life so recklessly. But she ignored him. There was precious little he could do to stop her without endangering her further.

It was one cold morning on the moon of Draboom that Obi-Wan peered around the wall of a shop to the street. He watched the flow of people walking up and down. He had his cap tugged low down below his ears. Nervously he checked the back, perhaps to feel if his braid stuck out. "You really think they'll side with us?"

"Of course." Satine said, tapping at her datapad, her ungloved hand white from the cold. "I used to visit my Aunt three times a year. My cousins and I trained constantly with each other. She won't give us up, anyhow."

"I have a bad feeling about this." He grumbled, pulling back against the wall. He sighed and squeezed his red nose with his forefingers. "Your grace, your trust in your family is commendable, but I cannot help but caution-"

"There is a significant number of Traditionalists here." Satine pulled down the screen to reload her inbox, no new messages appeared. "This is one of the few places they're allowed outside of their own territory. People don't want the trouble. Perhaps you sense them."

"And perhaps I sense a moon wide quake that will split it in two." he kicked up a small flurry of snow. The flakes floated along in an icy breeze and settled back down. "No matter what it is, I think we should go. The force has been telling me all morning-"

"You sound like your master."

He grimaced, but he kept his mouth shut after that.

The moon Draboom was notorious for constantly cycling through freezing winters and blistering hot summers, with no in betweens. It happened to be a winter cycle, so Satine had the excuse of going around with her helmet on. It was a bit of a relief, normally she had to go around with all sorts of ridiculous disguises, and Obi-Wan was starting to pop up in the wanted posters too, so he'd started joining in on the fun.

The dawn sun was streaming down on them both, though it was midday for the official time cycle.

Satine reloaded the page again, and clicked on a new message with delight. She read over it and grinned. "She'll take us in. We'll enter through a back door." She tucked her pad in her pocket. "We used to use it to escape into the city without the servants noticing, my cousins and I." She started towards the castle. Obi-Wan followed sulkily behind her.

Satine hadn't visited her mother's clan city since she was eleven, but she remembered the way well enough, though she was thrown off by a newly painted house or two.

The fortress of the Heit family was large, though there were portions of it that hadn't been used since before her mother's day. The ruling of the Heitt territory had fallen more and more to elected officials, rather than the Heitt bloodline as the years passed by. It had thick, tall walls surrounding the outside to keep out the invaders that had been so common when it had first been built three centuries before. The fortress itself was peaked to allow the snow to slide off the roof, while thick stone walls kept out the heat during the summer seasons.

The small private family door was very simple. The people in the town assumed it was for the servants, and the servants assumed it was for the other servants. In reality, only family members of the Hiet family had keys.

Satine knocked on the door and stepped back, tucking her hands under her armpits.

The door opened a moment later, and a woman with hair so red it looked nearly copper stuck her head out. She grabbed them both and pulled them inside a small room lit by a single white light.

Satine jumped on her the moment the door was closed. "Dora!" She grasped her shoulders and tapped her head against hers in greeting. "How are you and your husband?"

Dora shrugged. "Anxious to see you."

Satine pulled off her helmet and tucked it under her arm and thumped her hand against her chest. "Verda ratiin taylir val kal kad'la." She quoted. Warriors always keep their blades sharp. The Heit family creed.

Dora thumped in return. "Come. Mother is waiting." She started down the hallway.

Satine moved to follow her, then paused when she saw Obi-Wan wasn't following.

"Be'in?"

He didn't follow. He just looked at her with eyes of steel. "Satine, there is danger here."

She grasped his hand and tugged him forward. "They're family. Perhaps you sense a spy." She joked, though something inside her twinged.

He frowned, dead serious. "Maybe."

"Well." She squeezed his hand. "That's good. We'll get rid of the spy in my aunt's household. She'll be very grateful."

He sighed, and he closed his fingers around hers. "Don't say I didn't warn you." He said as she tugged them down the hallway.

Satine rolled her eyes. But she settled her her hand on her blaster, just to be sure it was ready and waiting.

Dora escorted them into a private sitting room. "Mother will see you in a moment, she just needs to tie up a meeting."

Then she left. Leaving them alone. In the room.

Obi-Wan gave her a warning look. Satine set her lips together and shrugged. She set her helmet on the table and rested her hand on her blaster.

But only a few minutes later Auntie Bo-Laen Heit came through the door, carrying a tray of mugs with steaming beers.

Satine stood to bump foreheads. She clapped her fist against her chest again. Verda ratiin taylir val kal kad'la."

Bo-Leon stared at her for a moment before setting the tray down. She didn't even bother to return the greeting.

Satine sunk back down into her seat and quietly picked up the cup. She took a sip. It was a Heitt'pirur, a mild beer mixed with chocolate and spices.

She leaned back against the couch. Every stiff muscle and tight joint eased out with a sigh. She well remembered as a child wanting to drink this drink with the others. They had poured about a spoon's worth in her cup and filled it with milk. She had sipped along with the rest of them, feeling very grown up, but curious as to why everyone was drinking mildly chocolatey milk. She'd never had the real drink before. It was like oil to her joints.

"Not bad." Kenobi said, holding his empty cup. She glared at him. Did he really have to drain the whole thing in one go?

Bo-Leon merely laughed and poured him another. "Take it slowly, boy, the spices start burning your throat if you drink too fast. This is meant to be savored."

Kenobi nodded, raising the drink to her in thanks before taking a sip.

"Auntie, I'm sure you know what we've come to discuss." Satine said, sitting up.

Bo-Leon raised a red eyebrow.

"I heard you made quite the stir in Cantobuir." She said slowly.

"Yes." Satine felt a smile stretch across her face. "Yes. You have no idea what a relief it was. Three weeks and we were able to drive the Traditionalists out, New Mando'ade is even setting up a base. With your trade routes we could-"

"Satine." Bo-Leon set her drink down. "While I commend your passion, you are your father's daughter. I can't help but worry about the laws you politicians are trying to impose on the warriors of our people."

Satine felt her smile melt. She was there, wasn't she? Wearing the beskar'gam of her family. Trained in the way of war. She had left safety to support her people. "I am a warrior of our people, I swore the creed. I care and wear my Beskar'gam-"

"Satine." Bo-Leon set a hand against her forehead, as if drawing upon patience to deal with a small child. She sighed and shook her head. "The last time you came Bo-Katan could beat you hand to hand, and she was two years younger."

"Now that's hardly fair." Obi-Wan interjected. "She beat me in lightsaber combat and she's been giving me… ah… well"

He trailed off at both their glares and went back to sipping his drink.

"If you are a warrior, then what is this?" Slowly Bo-Leon brought out a holo projector and set it on the table. It light up and showed the opened page of Shar Dajun'a Unjurir. "I fail to see how any warrior could do this."

Satine stared. "I fight on two fronts. One is physical, but the other… you have to take a larger perspective for society as a whole. This act will ensure peace and safety for our people."

"Satine." Bo-Leon tugged the drink out of Satine's hand and set it on the table. She took her hands and squeezed them. "We are here, as we are, because of our traditions and our ancestors. You… you take their work, their life's work and throw it away. We have a duty to uphold. A legacy to preserve-"

"I know!" Satine snatched her hands away, suddenly furious. "Don't think I don't feel the weight of their past on my shoulders. I have studied their words, their families, their deeds. But we cannot always remain this way Auntie. We can no longer afford to go to war in a blaze of glory. We will destroy ourselves."

Bo-Leon held up a hand. "That's not why I'm concerned. War for the sake of war helps none. But this-" she tapped the flickering hologram. "-this is what concerns me. Your paper stands in the way of everything our people have built. Our armor is more than war, it is our way of expression, of honoring those who came before us, and honoring those that come afterwards. You ask we hide our families, as if we were ashamed of them."

Satine pressed her lips into a paper thin line. It was the protestors at Keldabe all over again.

"We have come to express so much of ourselves in our armor, this is true." Satine took a deep breath. "But we cannot forget why the armor is there. What it's most fundamental function is. As long as we are so focused upon war, we cannot curb our destructive ways. We will learn to express ourselves in other ways. Through clothing. Through documents. Through tales. We must adapt."

Bo-Leon's face hardened. "You are your father's child indeed."

"Well, if you will not join us, tell me and we will be on our way." Satine said, ignoring the sharp knife in her heart.

Bo-Leon smiled coldly. "We will not. But-" she raised a hand as Satine stood, "-do not go. I am having your usual room prepared as we speak. You and the… Jetii may stay for tonight."

Sarine sighed in relief. That was one cold night in a cramped corner gone. "Thank you."

She picked up her helmet, and the mug, and she and Ben followed her out of the room.

The interior of the family house had changed significantly since Satine had last been there. Paintings were gone, racks of weapons thinned, and the floors cold and empty from rugs.

Satine had known that the wars had put strain on their people's economics, but for a house even as large and powerful as the Heitts to be affected this way…

They needed to end this war. And soon.

Bo-Leon stopped outside a thick wooden door, and Satine felt something like a rush of warmth. This, at least, was the same as always, with painted symbols lining the edge of the door and the Nite Owl carved in the center.

Bo-Leon opened the door for Satine. But she stopped Obi-Wan as he moved to follow.

"Your room is next door." She gestured down the hallway.

Obi-Wan looked her firmly in the eyes, it would have been more effective if he didn't have a stripe of foam across the top of his mouth. "I stay with her grace."

Bo-Loen watched him carefully, perhaps to see if he was serious, then turned to Satine.

"Gaki? Er Jetii?" Really? A Jedi?

Satine shrugged. "Kaysh cuyir ori mandokar." He is very loyal.

"Ni liser haa'taylir ibacc." Bo-Loen replied. I can see that.

She moved her arm and let Obi-Wan inside.

The door thudded dully behind them.

Obi-Wan tugged off his hat and putting it in his pocket. "What's wrong with me being a Jedi?"

Satine raised an eyebrow. He should have been able to understand all of that. Did he not pick up the subtext?

"She thinks we're lovers." She informed him.

She hadn't expected to be hurt by his response, but the flash of panic and horror that came upon his face made her turn to pretend to look out the window so he wouldn't see the disappointment in her eyes.

"I-I- we don't- Jedi don't-" Obi-Wan sputtered.

Satine slowly set her helmet on a table and took a sip of her drink. It was cold. "Do you not find me lovable, Be'in?" She teased without passion.

"What? No! I mean- yes- but- it doesn't matter. Jedi don't form attachments. I can't. I just can't."

Satine waited for a moment to gain control of her emotions, then turned around to his beet red face. "Tell that to her." She smiled wryly. "We'll see if she believes you."

Obi-Wan bit his lip and then collapsed into a nearby chair, setting his ankle to rest on his knee.

"What a crass, rude assumption." He muttered.

"She's my aunt." Satine replied. "Of course she's going to be interested in my love life."

"Ah yes, because I have a myriad of aunts to compare her to."

She shrugged. "Gek." Fair.

She tried to set her drink on the windowsill, but found there was a strange metal bar in the way so she set it next to her helmet.

She sat on the bed and flopped back against the mattress. "Do you remember any of your family?"

His face turned soft, his hand coming up to rest on his chin. "There's… a face I can recall. A boy. Older than I would have been at the time. I think he was my brother."

"Then surely you would-"

"It's only a face." He sighed, dropping his hand. "No name, no pleasant memory or feeling. I have no attachment to it. But when I think of the Jedi, of my fellow crechlings, I know their names, I have a hundred, a thousand memories, years of friendship. I remember the peace of the Jedi temple." He looked to her. "They are my family and the temple is my home now."

Satine felt a treacherous lump form in her throat, and she turned away. What she would give to know that Mandalore would bring her peace.

The Jetiise had killed the True Mando'ade, yes, and they talked too much and did too little, but if they could go home to find sanctuary and peace, perhaps there was more to their ways than Satine gave them.

"I…" she began hoarsely. She cleared her throat. "-what do you have? If no family?"

"Well, we have the creche."

"Bless you.

Obi-Wan snorted. "Very funny. The creche is where we are put as younglings. We're sorted into groups, called clans, when we are very young, and raised together. And of course Master Qui-Gon raises me." He grimaced. "When I'm not running away."

"Raised you." Satine corrected. She pulled off one boot, she rubbed her foot, working out the cramps that had grown since their trek through the night to the city.

His brow wrinkled. "What?"

"He raised you." She kicked the boot across the floor. "You're old enough to look after yourself now."

"Master Qui-Gon is a wise Jedi." He said, annoyance creeping into his voice. "I still have much to learn from him."

"He's not wise enough to recognize your abilities, to allow you to grow on your own."

"He thinks better of me than your aunt of you." He snapped.

Satine turned and glared fiercely at him. "My aunt-" But she couldn't deny it. She grimaced, and looked away.

"I'm sorry." He said quickly. "That was cruel of me."

Satine drew in a long shuddering breath and smiled. "Draar tok'kad par jorhaa'irin te gek." She recited. Never back down for saying the truth. The Kryze creed.

He was silent.

"She's right." Satine whispered. "I am destroying my family's legacy. My mother would never have agreed to Shar Dajun'a Unjurir. Her mother would have disowned me. Even my father had his doubts-"

"And do you think you are wrong?" He asked, his voice thin and hesitant.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and considered. Her heart thumped impatiently in her chest, knocking against the wall of her chest to demand an answer.

"No." She croaked out. She looked into his boyish face, with a twinkle in his eye, and yet so earnest in his apology. "No I- ow!"

She sat up and looked down to see a tiny six legged venom mite pulling it's fangs out of her foot.

"What-"

Obi-Wan snatched her up into his arms and was on top of the bed in an instant.

"Be'in!-"

"Be quiet." He hissed.

She shut her mouth, glancing around the room. The tiny clack clack clack of a hundred tiny claws filled the air.

It was as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice on Satine's head. Her lungs and her muscles shivered and curled tightly into themselves. Obi-Wan had been right. Her aunt had betrayed her. But why, why-

The empty hallways. Of course. They were short on money, and the bounty on Obi-Wan and Satine's heads could feed a clan for six months.

Her aunt had betrayed her for money.

Scores of venom mites surged out from under the bed, coating the floor and crawling up the sheets.

Obi-Wan backed up against the wall slipping on the pillows, and swore. Satine, despite their predicament, felt a tinge of pride that it was both basic and Mando'ade.

"My boots." She moaned as they crawled over her shoes, poking and chewing at the leather. They'd be devoured in seconds. A team of venom mites could devour a Nimal horse in five minutes after stunning it with their venom. The average venom mite had three milligrams of poison and considering her weight it wouldn't be enough to kill her, but if they couldn't escape they would be devoured alive.

And her aunt. Her aunt had set them on her own family.

Obi-Wan shifted her to one arm. "Could we please focus on the task at hand?" He raised his hand. Her helmet flew across the room, smacking against his palm.

"Boots are relevant." Satine said sharply, though she more felt like sobbing. She took the helmet from him. "Do you know how difficult it is to get a good pair when you're on the run? A good pair of boots can be life or death in a battle."

He grunted unsympathetically. "How do we get out?" He asked. The venom mites, having devoured the blankets, were ever so steadily making their way inwards.

Satine glanced around. The hallway would have too many people in it, but the window- it was covered in a red energy shield, projected up from the metal bar. Satine pointed. "Destroy that, there's a ledge outside the window-"

Obi-Wan ignited his kad and threw it across the room. It ground through the stone and up through the unprotected side of the shield. It died almost immediately. He waved his hand and the window clicked open.

"Good, now climb-"

He leapt from the bed, landing in one empty spot on the floor, and vaulted them through the small space.

They emerged two stories up over the city, quite out of reach of the windowsill Satine had been trying to direct him towards. They began to fall.

Satine screamed and clutched at his neck.

Somehow they landed without breaking his legs. He even hit the haar ground running.

Satine realized dimly that the world was starting to tilt in a way that was very much not because of the angle Obi-Wan was holding her, and she was rather beginning to feel that her head was full of static. The venom shouldn't have been affecting her yet, but her heart was beating faster than usual from adrenaline. Wonderful.

Blaster fire sounded from behind them. Obi-Wan leapt a dozen steps up the stairs along the wall, deflecting as they went. She had to focus very hard in order to see the blue of the jetii'kad, instead of just streaks of light.
"You caught your kad while you jumped through a window?" Satine said over the blaster bolts.

His only answer was a grunt and another leap up the stairs.

"Consider me impressed."

That made him pause, only for a split second, but the smile on his face was worth the lost time. Ka'ra he was handsome when he smiled.

In fact, everything felt beautiful today. The flakes of snow that fell from the sky, the Heitt crest that was painted on every tower. The blaster bolts that streamed streaks blue across the air to be deflected by the whirling whirling light of the light saber.

It occured to Satine that she was feeling deliriously happy for being chased out of her Aunt's home after an attempt on her life. With only socks on her feet, no less.

There were guards on top of the wall, which was the order of things, wasn't it? Satine slipped on her helmet. She drew her pistol and started firing her own beautiful beautiful bolts.

It took Satine three or four shots to hit one guard, sometimes five. Far higher than her average, even considering how much she was being thrown around.

"I'm not feeling well." She announced as Obi-Wan took out two guards with their own blasts.

"I'm not exactly feeling wonderful myself." He said, and leapt off the edge, two bolts whizzing over their heads.

This time, his landing wasn't so successful. He stumbled and Satine went flying. She briefly floated in a world free of gravity and worry until she landed. Her breath jumped from her lungs and skipped away with the wind. Her skull cracked against the edge of her helmet. The euphoria of the venom mite vanished.

Satine squeezed her eyes shut, hissing in pain. Stars birthed, seared into her eyes, and died in brilliant, colorful explosions.

"Your grace-"

More blaster fire. Satine staggered to her feet. Blood rapidly soaked through her hair and trailed down her neck. And, if she didn't know better, she'd say someone was repeatedly hitting her head with a brick. She rubbed the back of her helmet, for all it the good it would do.

"I'm fine." Her vision throbbed with black spots. "Let's keep going."

Obi-Wan continued to block bolts while Satine, ah, commandeered a speeder and they were on their way out of the city. If she hadn't remembered the terrain so well, they would have been caught, undoubtedly. She sent them into a forest, down a canyon she and her cousins used to search for fossils in, and out of the forest into the rolling plains, coated in sparkling snow.

When they had not seen anyone in a half hour, Obi-Wan took over the controls. The cold air had made his cheeks pink and chapped. It would be worse once the sun set temperatures below zero.

Her beskar'gam was insulated, and she wore a body suit that contained body heat almost perfectly so she wouldn't freeze but she would sorely miss a bed to herself, instead of curling up together under a blanket with Obi-Wan to keep him warm.

The pain hit her about then, both the pain of her aunt's betrayal, and the pain of her head returned. Her adrenaline was wearing off, then.

To distract herself from the first issue, ahe pulled off her helmet and touched the lump of blood at the back of her head experimentally.

Obi-Wan glanced at her and cringed into his seat. "Sorry."

She silently reached down to her soaked socks- wouldn't that be a joy to keep warm- and tugged them off to wipe at the back of her head. She managed to get most of the blood off her hair without blacking out, which she considered a victory.

Gradually the hills became rockier, and the hills sharper. She'd trained here, once, with her cousins. They'd played hide and seek.

She held the bloody socks in her lap, clenching them tight enough her gloves were being stained the horrible red brown color.

"Well?" She demanded.

Obi-Wan glanced at her, eyebrow raised. "What?"

"You can go ahead and say it." Satine looked at him tiredly. "You were right. I should have listened to you. Your Force… you know it better than I. I'm sorry."

"Well, obviously I'm above pointing out we definitely could have avoided all this had you just listened to me." He grinned. "And of course this will all be forgiven and I will never bring it up again. But I accept your apology. For now."

She sighed, but there was a smile with the sigh. "Yes, yes. I understand."

The sky turned a brilliant orange, the clouds edging a soft pink, with the sun nearly tucked away in those snowy hills.

"I'm sorry." Obi-Wan said suddenly. "About what happened. It must be hard."

Her eyes slid over to him, despite herself, a smile curled at the end of her lip. "My family betrays me and you only think to console me now?"

"You say that like I have a family betrayal to compare it to."

Satine hummed an acknowledgment and reached up to touch her wound. The pain had dulled somewhat. Ringing through her head lile the vibrations you would feel when you stood by the enormous bells they rang every morning in Keldabe, rather than her head was being used to test the durability of bricks.

"I will survive." She decided.

She would survive. But she would never see her cousins again without knowing they had chosen to turn her in than to honor their familial bond. Her children would never know the joy of a secret door to sneak out of into a city, would never experience the pride in drinking chocolatey milk with the adults or play with cousins and stay up the night talking of anything and everything. They would never see the house of their mother's line. Not after a betrayal like that.

But war had always torn apart such precious things.

Her eyes welled and she allowed the tears to run down her cheeks, blown aside by the winds. Her cheeks would be smeared with blood if she tried to rub them away, she rationalized. Besides, her hands felt heavier than pure beskar.

Obi-Wan's warm hand suddenly covered her own. She glanced up. He smiled a silly little smile and squeezed her hand a little.

He didn't let go until she'd stopped crying.

D: